There is a passage in Olivia Nuzzi’s sorta-memoir, “American Canto,” that, if you look past the poor writing, says something striking. After news of their relationship broke, Nuzzi writes, she received a call. “‘I need you to take a bullet for me,’ the Politician said. ‘Please.’” In Nuzzi’s telling, the Politician went on: “‘If it’s just sex, I can survive it.’ If it was anything more, he could not.” One does not need to know details of Nuzzi’s apparent relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to understand that when Vanity Fair and Nuzzi announced last week that they would part ways, she was paying a professional price for personal behavior. Meanwhile, the other participant in the affair seems to face no consequences. Meanwhile, the other participant in the affair seems to face no consequences. Kennedy, the secretary of health and human services, is busy neutering the American public health system. No Republicans have called for him to testify before Congress about the allegations in Nuzzi’s book that he hid drug use during his presidential campaign. Kennedy isn’t waiting until the storm subsides; he’s simply walking outdoors and doesn’t mind the wind. None of this is to defend Nuzzi. She promoted a charlatan. For her lapse in ethics, losing her job is getting what she deserves. But what does it say that Kennedy has faced next to no consequences for his part in what boils down to a sex and drugs scandal? And possibly predicted that if the scandal…
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